Women’s ordination – weighing up the arguments

Pic: Vatican News

I am not sure whether the US Vice-President, J. D. Vance, is taking time to read this blog series. Regardless, his advice to Pope Leo XIV — “I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology” — applies all the more to me, since I cannot claim any particular depth of theological training or experience. However, I am certain of at least one thing: neither the Vice-President nor I is the Pope.

As a lay Catholic with long and varied experience in different fields of life – as well as some experience, for a time, in the life of the Anglican Church –  I do have something to contribute by way of personal reflection. I am also old enough to know that I am certainly not infallible. That realisation can come as quite a shock as one gets older!

In a series of blog posts labelled Women and Ministry, I have examined the case for retaining a male-only priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church on the following grounds:

Apostolic tradition

Sacramental imagery

Magisterial weight and tradition

I then considered the case for opening priestly ordination to women on the basis of:

Equality of dignity and mandate in the sacrament of baptism

Understanding the conditional role of cultural norms in biblical and more recent times

The equality of men and women more broadly as made in the image and likeness of God

The key role of women in the ministry and life of Jesus including that of St Mary Magdalene

I also took a short detour into the related question of ordination to the diaconate. There, I concluded that the continued exclusion of women from that particular ministry appears both unjustifiable and unnecessary, while noting that the Roman Catholic Church has not definitively concluded on the matter.

So what of women priests? I find the arguments both for and against retaining the traditional position compelling, albeit in different ways. We do well to listen attentively to tradition — not only within the Roman Church, which is headed by our eldest brother in faith, the successor of St Peter, the Bishop of Rome, primus inter pares –  first among equals. We must also take seriously the theological (rather than purely sociological) objections grounded in sacramental imagery: the male priest acting in persona Christi, the male bridegroom, in relation to the Church as Bride. Finally, when a figure of the stature of Pope Saint John Paul II declares a matter closed, final, and to be held by all the faithful, we ought to pause and reflect carefully before rushing to the barricades.

All that said, each of us is gifted with understanding, memory, will and insight. We are called to listen to the Holy Spirit in harmony with the universal and institutional Church. We are not merely invited but commanded to love God with our whole heart, mind, and strength. Loving God with our whole mind implies not only obedience but honesty –  and, ultimately, obedience to God comes first.

From my vantage point as one lay Roman Catholic, I cannot deny the immense contribution women have made to the mission of the worldwide, universal catholic Church –  of which the Roman Church is a central part –  particularly in teaching, healing, and sacramental leadership. I am thinking not only of women deacons, validly ordained in churches beyond the Roman Catholic communion, but also of women priests in the Anglican Communion whom I have known personally. Their contribution as ordained ministers is immense. The Church, and indeed the world, would be much poorer without their priestly vocation. This I know from direct personal experience.

So where does that leave me? Yes or no, you might ask. My answer is a clear yes to the ordination of women as priests –  but a yes grounded in realism. Any change in outlook or policy on this matter within the Church to which I belong will not occur in my lifetime, nor is it likely in that of the next generation. It may take decades, or centuries — if humanity itself survives nuclear or climatic catastrophe and extinction. It may never happen, because St John Paul II and others may have been right in declaring the matter (1) final, (2) unchangeable, and (3) binding on all Catholics (4) for all time.

Who am I to know better? Then again, who is anyone to know fully the mind of God?